Pettiness is the tendency of people without large purposes.

Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.

Stalin's henchman Molotov, 96, died old and in bed, a privilege he helped to deny to millions.

Americans complain a lot about the government and they voice a generalized suspicion of the government, but they constantly clammer for more of it.

Man is messy, but any creature that can create space vehicles can probably cope.

Mitt Romney's losing at this point in a big way. If something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry. I do not know why - given that Mr. Romney knew the day that [Sen. John] McCain lost in 2008 that he was going to run for president again - that he didn't get all of this out and tidy up some of his offshore accounts and all the rest.

Popularity makes no law invulnerable to invalidation. Americans accept judicial supervision of their democracy - judicial review of popular but possibly unconstitutional statutes - because they know that if the Constitution is truly to constitute the nation, it must trump some majority preferences.